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Sizzling month puts Trout in familiar territory

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Trout's two-homer game 1:04

6/17/14: Mike Trout hits two home runs, including a three-run go-ahead blast in the 5th against the Indians

By Alden Gonzalez
/
MLB.com |

CLEVELAND -- There were questions about all the strikeouts, and also about the mini-slump he carried through the season's first month or so. And now, once again, Mike Trout is the game's best all-around player.

Heading into Thursday's series finale against the Indians, Trout led the Majors in the all-encompassing sabermetric stat, Wins Above Replacement, producing a score of 4.7, according to FanGraphs.com. Trout's score ranked just ahead of the 4.6 accumulated by Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

Trout's slash line sat at .264/.363/.521 on May 17, with 53 strikeouts in 42 games. Since then, the 22-year-old is batting .396 with eight homers, 26 RBIs and just 17 strikeouts in 24 games, putting his slash line at .311/.397/.610 heading into Thursday. His 155 total bases -- second in the American League -- put him on pace for a career-high 355.

And by the end of the year, Trout will likely be off to the best start in baseball history.

Based on fWAR (FanGraphs WAR), Trout -- easily the Major League leader in 2012 and '13 -- ranks second behind Hall of Famer Ty Cobb through a player's age-22 season, with Cobb at 25.9 and Trout at 25.8. Trout is on pace to finish the year with a 10.9 fWAR, which would top his marks of 10.4 of '13 and 10.0 of '12.